Read 'em and weep!
by VGS2
Summary: After reading a famous lagomorph story on the internet, Buneary is more confident than ever in her ability to impress Pikachu! However, once she finds him, he starts acting way more stressed and nervous than usual. What's going on?
1. Love is in the air!

Chapter 1

**Love is in the air!**

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 1:00 PM]<strong>

Buneary wasn't having the most fun time of her life right now. Heck, she was just _this close_ to killing herself out of sheer boredom. Why oh why did she agree to do this again?

Buneary sighed and looked out the window of the room she, Dawn, and the other pokémon from her team were sharing for a few nights. She could see everyone playing around in the wonderful sunshine. The sunshine that **she** should be enjoying.

She sighed twice as loudly as before. He had to make her do this on the nicest day ever, didn't he? She could have been having fun with her friends outside, or working on her lovely tan at the very least. But nope, it looked like that wasn't happening anytime soon...

The sad thing was that she wasn't even here for a good reason. She came across Piplup using Dawn's laptop, he gave her a list of "super awesome stories" to read, and then that was her pretty much done for the day.

It sounded like a fun idea at the time, but she obviously wasn't thinking straight when she thought that accepting any 'fun' idea from Piplup of all pokémon would end well. These stories were long, boring, and totally lame.

She really **really **wanted to ditch these things, but she knew Piplup way too well. The next time they met, he'd no doubt quiz her on these silly things, she wouldn't be able to answer, and then he'd go into full drama queen mode. Really, going through these so-called "fanfictions" seemed like the best choice, as bad as they were. It beat getting an earful from that whiny penguin.

There was a plus side to reading these things though. He gave her a few stories with quite a lot of romance to 'em, which always made her smile. Unfortunately, heartwarming or not, they weren't that exciting; and worst of all, none gave her many tips on how to deal with her own love life! And oh jeez, if she took advice from that last romantic story she read, then she'd most likely be either proven clinically insane, or viewed as a big jerk at the very least, and she was pretty sure her beloved Pikachu wouldn't appreciate a crazy rabbit that punched him in the face every three seconds.

She sighed sadly as her thoughts shifted to another topic, the same exact topic that came to her mind almost every day. Would he ever start thinking of her as more than a friend? Or was this as far as their relationship was ever going to go? Heck, she even blatantly told him a few times about her harboured feelings for him, and yet he **still** didn't even bat an eyelid!

...Well, granted she was mostly just quietly mumbling into her fur bashfully, but still.

She shook her head to clear herself of the depressing thoughts and continued to soldier on through her current fic. The sooner she got them over and done with the sooner she could hop off and do something more worthwhile.

The fic in question starred some green guy in tights who fought stuff with a sword and had an annoying fairy companion to help him along. He was advertised as a "hero of time", but she didn't really see any time traveling or anything, so that was a letdown. Plus, all the talking and descriptions about rooms and stuff was boring the poor bunny half to death. Where was all the action, drama and, most importantly, romance from the other stories with this guy? Jeez, what Piplup saw in these things she would never know.

Thankfully though, the story was soon over, and she only had one more to skim through. She swore that after this next one, she would never read another word for as long as she lived. ...Unless Pikachu was into that sort of stuff, in which case she might make a few exceptions, maybe~

Not even bothering to look at the title or summary this time, she simply chose to dive straight into it. Once again, the sooner this junk was over with, the better.

_"The sun shone brightly on a warm spring afternoon in the Sinnoh region..."_

Ah, so it was a story set in the pokémon world. Huh, made a nice change honestly. All the other fics were based on other, weirder worlds, which was pretty cool, but still it was nice to see some familiarity for a change.

_"It was here that a male Pikachu was gathering its lunch from a bush of Oran berries."_

Her heart beat a little faster at the sound of a Pikachu being mentioned. Was it her Pikachu this fic was following right now? Reading onwards slightly quickly debunked that theory, it was just some random Forest Chu. Still, her curiosity was now peaked, so she read on.

The next part was mostly being all upset about his apparently dead family or whatever, which was a bit depressing to read, but not the saddest thing ever written on paper. Nope, nothing would ever be as bad as the time Brock decided to write a love letter to Nurse Joy... The memory caused Buneary to shudder. Some things were just best left forgotten.

As the story continued, the pikachu heard a loud scream coming from somewhere else in the forest. While it still left her vaguely curious, Buneary couldn't help but not really care. Seeing the sun climbing higher and higher into the sky outside, she was on the verge of just skimming through and picking up pointers from the story just to get outside quicker and in the sunshine. However, any ideas of doing that though were soon dashed after the next sentence, _"Who'd made that noise? It'd sounded like a Buneary."_

Buneary had to do a double take, the fic just mentioned a pikachu and a buneary in the exact same place! A pikachu, **and** a buneary! Ok,_ now_ she was curious! Deciding that this story was much more interesting than she initially thought, she proceeded to go back a page to have a gander at the story's details.

After reading the details and summary, Buneary's jaw pretty much refused to get back up from the floor. She was looking at a romantic fic that features a buneary dating a pikachu! No matter what happened now, Buneary decided that this fic, In Times of Danger, was now her most favourite story in the universe! Not wasting another second, she dove right into it.

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 2:23 PM]<strong>

Buneary's face was absolutely beaming, that was the best thing she had ever read in her entire life! It had left her with such a fuzzy feeling that she could practically feel her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. Man, she was actually tempted to read it again!

It was funny though, the pikachu in this story was almost exactly like her darling Pikachu in so many ways. The buneary wasn't all that much like her though, at least not until the later chapters where she started to cheer up and stop being depressed all the time. But hey, it was close enough!

She did seem incredibly familiar though... Meh, oh well. Probably similar to somebody she knew once.

As Buneary reached for the back button, she realized that the story was so good, that she just had to do something for it, though she didn't really know what. The site didn't have a ratings system, and she couldn't favourite unless she joined... Oh, but she could make a nice little review. Yeah, most people loved these! She opened up the review writing window, and, after a moments consideration, began to write anything and everything that came to her mind.

'_Nice story, I really like it! :3_

_The pikachu in the story reminds me of my boyfriend so much! Infact, it's just like reading about our lives together, right down to him being a pikachu too. Were you inspired by our love for each other, or something?_'

Buneary stopped and thought about the last sentence a little. They weren't exactly dating yet now, were they? Heck, She had no idea if Pikachu even liked her as a teammate yet, let alone an actual mate...

Buneary giggled after giving that thought some... well, thought. It had been ages since she'd used the word 'mate', no thanks to hanging around trainers for so long, which had done some crazy things to the girl's vocabulary. But she loved how the term sounded; it made them sound like they were a part of a big family, and it made her feel so mischievous for saying it! She made a mental note to remember that word for later.

Back to the present though, Buneary didn't feel like deleting what she thought was some awesome writing just because of... technicalities, so she decided to just add something to it.

_'Well actually, I guess we don't exactly live in the forest, but still. And, between you and me, we're not quite dating just yet, but we're working on that._'

There, no more confusion! After writing that, she reached for the 'submit' button. Before she could press it though, she slipped back into daydream land, and before too long her paws decided to join her there as started to type once again.

_'(Sigh) I really hope he'll ask me on a date soon, he's just so hunky and kind and..._'

All of a sudden, she snapped out of her daydreams as she remembered something important. That buneary from the story was too similar to one of her cousins from the time when she herself lived in a forest. In fact... she probably was!

Buneary's brother always complained about how he always ended up saving her, and she had heard rumors that the alpha lopunny in her warren absolutely hated someone in the group for no particular reason, so it just had to be! Before she could think about this any further, her paws had already finished the review for her.

_'Wait a second, this buneary is my cousin! :O  
>Huh, always wondered where she got off to...<em>'

Gosh, she really had to start watching those things. If she were writing something while Pikachu was around... man that would be embarrassing.

...Hehe, writing something, eh? She'd have to look into that actually, it sounded like fun! Though with this imagination of hers... yeah, Pikachu's staying well away from her folders.

After another minute of musing, she snapped out of it and checked her review again. She worried for a few seconds that maybe putting up information on her love life wouldn't be a great idea, but meh, whatever. It wasn't like Pikachu himself would be reading it anyway, or her cousin for that matter.

Satisfied with her reasoning, she finally pressed submit, and after a few minutes of waiting, her review was up! Perfect!

Happy with the result, she decided to give it a rest for the day. After reading so many stories, she felt that her head was going to explode! Still, it was definitely worth it for that last one. She got to warm her heart, learn dating tips and find out where her cousin was in just one fic. It was awesome! If she ever saw that buneary cousin of hers again, she was so getting a hug!

Looking out of the window, she saw that the weather was still bright and sunny. Buneary smiled. It was finally time to have some fun in the sun!

After closing the laptop, she made her way outside with the happiest spring in her step as she went along, ignoring whatever was shuffling about in the rooms behind her.

* * *

><p><strong>[Tuesday, 4:00 PM]<strong>

Despite looking around for him inside this town's park for the best part of almost an hour, Buneary could find neither hair nor hide of the Chu she loved. Hm, though she hadn't checked the lake yet...

Oh well, Buneary didn't mind way too much either way. She'd managed to avoid Piplup and his inevitable questions about the stories at least, and she was certain she could try out the things she'd learned later on when Pikachu showed up. For now, she was just gonna go find a spot on a hill somewhere so that she could rest and- ...Oh, wait a second, never mind, there he was!

Buneary's smile grew bigger and bigger as she hopped on over to him, ecstasy and excitement and other fun feelings filling her veins more and more as she got closer to the mouse who currently had his back to her. Finally, now was the time to put everything she learned from her cousin's adventure to the test!

After a few more excited leaps and bounds, she was close enough to catch his attention. Before doing anything of the sort though, Buneary slowed down for a second. What would she say to him? If she was going to look really impressive, she had to come up with a very nice and well thought greeting that would make him feel really happy to see her...

After a second or two of deep consideration, she shrugged and then glomped him.

Probably not expecting his best friend to tackle him out of nowhere, Pikachu yelped and tumbled forwards onto his belly. "Heya Pika~"

Pikachu stiffened up in surprise as he heard her voice. "Oh! Er, h-hey Bun!"

Still clinging onto him, Buneary took the opportunity to snuggle into Pikachu's fur. "Mmm, how are you today? I haven't seen ya for a while."

She expected him to say something witty, like, "_You mean since yesterday?_" but instead, his response surprised her a little. "Oh, I'm... fine thanks. Yeah."

Was something up with her Pikachu? He seemed so... tense today!

...Nah, he was probably just tired or something. The poor guy did a lot of battling these days, so she shouldn't be so surprised. Oh well, all the more reason to cheer him up! She finally hopped off his back and cheerfully looked at the mouse who was now watching her.

"I've been looking all over for ya! Where've you been? Heh, not hiding from me, I hope?" She said with a playful wink.

"Oh, sorry about that. Nah, I've just been around doing... stuff." Pikachu replied, seemingly not picking up on her good humour.

The air around them now feeling a little awkward, Buneary decided to speak up again. "Oh, ok. Well, er... Ohh, I just remembered, there's this big awesome lake I wanted to show you! It's so pretty and it's surrounded by berry bushes and... Umm, Pika, is something wrong?" Buneary couldn't help but notice that he was just staring off into space as she spoke. "You're looking a little-"

Pikachu gasped and then suddenly sprang to life. "N-no! I'm good!"

Buneary recoiled a little in surprise at the sudden outburst. "...Er, ehehe, nah I ain't upset at all, is what I meant to say." Buneary raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He certainly was acting suspicious, if anything. Wait, when did she say anything about being upset? What did-

"Actually yeah, come to think of it, I don't really feel that well I'm afraid. Thought the fresh air would help a little, but yeah, guess not. Heh."

After hearing that, Buneary's concerns instantly changed. "Awww, really? Well would like me to do anything for ya?"

Pikachu looked thoughtful for a second, but then he shook his head. "Nah, I'm good.".

Buneary wasn't convinced. "But... y'know, I don't mind at all! I could get you something to drink, or a hot water bottle, or -"

"Naaah, don't worry about me." Pikachu interrupted, "I just need some rest and then I'll be back to kicking butt yet again! Pika-pinkie swear!"

A little worried or not, Buneary couldn't help but giggle at that. "TeeHee! Well... alrighty then! In that case, I hope ya get better soon, Pika~!"

Pikachu chuckled lightly, "Heh, thanks a lot! I'm sure I'll-" Not waiting for him to finish, Buneary closed the distance between them and then affectionately began rubbing her nose against his. After that, she began to look up into his super sexy... Wait, were those tears in his- ?

She jumped as he looked away and started coughing suddenly. "Ugh, yeah, as you can see it's getting worse, so I'm gonna just, y'know, go. Bye Bun!"

Well, that would explain it. She sometimes got teary eyed after a good cough too! ...Though not usually before the coughing part. Well, whatever. She was thinking about it way too much already anyway. "Yeah, see ya-" Pikachu bolted off before she could even finish speaking. "...later." Buneary sighed. Hmph, her 'perfect' day was nowhere near as perfect as she thought it'd be. Stupid colds...

Oh well, having a nasty infection is never nice, but she was sure he'd be back on his feet and ready to have fun again soon enough!

Now having nothing better to do, Buneary decided to take a little stroll. She had plenty of sunshine left to enjoy, after all!

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 4:25 PM]<strong>

Even though she was resting peacefully against a tree, Buneary just couldn't stop nervously fidgeting. Even after he insisted that he'd be fine after a little rest, Buneary still felt like she had to do something for him. He could be all alone in that room right now with a nasty bunged up nose. Or he could have a nasty runny nose. Or both! Poor, poor Pikachu...

Ok, she had decided. She could at least go and check up on him. And if he was asleep or wanted some peace, she'd leave. Simple as that.

...Well, maybe after seeing him sleep peacefully for a little- She shook her head violently, there was no way she was gonna start doing creepy stuff like that!

Though as she started walking towards the building, she couldn't help but start imagining how adorable her hero would be, blissfully sleeping, having adventures about who knows what while in his own peaceful little world of dreams...

...Gosh, she really could write one of her own fanfiction thingies with lines like that! Buneary snickered, now that'd be the day.

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 4:30 PM]<strong>

Inside the pokémon center, Buneary made her way up the flight of stairs that lead to Pikachu and Ash's temporary bedroom, which was mercifully quite close to the stairs. Inwardly thanking Arceus for the short walk down the surprisingly long hallway, she went up to the door and got ready to knock. As she raised her paw however, she heard a small muffled noise coming from inside.

At first she simply shrugged and again got ready to knock, but suddenly the sound became very sharp for just a split second, and then just as soon as it came, it went back to just muffled noises once more.

Her knocking position stalled as her curiosity started to grow. What was that all about? Did that noise come from Pikachu? She just couldn't tell. A few more seconds of pondering caused the sharp noise to start up again for a short time. Just what was going on in there? Buneary had to find out.

Carefully, she propped her favorite ear against the door and tried to focus as hard as she could. After a little while, it was very faint but she could swear that she could hear ... Sniffles?

Well, she supposed it made sense, what with him being sick and all, but why wasn't he doing it at all when she saw him earlier? Gosh, he must be unwell if he'd gotten that worse in just a few minutes!

Feeling sorry for her best friend, Buneary felt extremely tempted to go in with some tissues or some hot hot soup or... heck, anything that would make him feel better! In fact, if she had to snuggle up to him herself to keep him warm, then she'd dang well do it!

Well, of course she'd love to do that anyway, but still.

Before she went in though, she started to reconsider. After all, she was sick once, and all she could think about was Pikach-, er, napping. Would it really be worth it to interrupt his little sleep just to say hi? And he did say that he wanted to rest a while...

Buneary sighed, what to do...?

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 4:50 PM]<strong>

Buneary groaned in frustration, she was getting nowhere with this! She'd contemplated, debated, surfed the web, and even drew up a force field analysis diagram to look at all the pros and cons of barging in to help him, but she _still _couldn't decide what to do! Ohh... what would her cousin do?

...Forget it, she was going in! **Quietly**! Besides, it wasn't like he was getting changed into some clothes or anything, like that one time when Ash forgot to lock his door, and Dawn and Buneary saw his... Buneary quickly shook those bad memories out of her head.

Taking a deep breath, she gave the door a little push and quietly let herself in.

She couldn't hear him sniffling anymore, though she could hear him quietly breathing. Following the noise, she soon found him buried underneath the covers with his head poking out.

Normally she would have found the sight of him in mid-nap super adorable, so much so that she'd be joyously squealing pretty hard... but she couldn't. In fact, Buneary's heart nearly broke from the sight. He looked so unwell that she couldn't believe her eyes!

His eyes were all dark and baggy like he'd been rubbing them too much, his nose was all red and raw looking, and his cheeks seemed to have lost all their glow, vigor and awesomeness. This really was a nasty illness, whatever it was. Poor Pika...

Well, she couldn't really do much now. Waking him would only make things worse.

Oh well. The next time she saw him, she would do everything she could to make him feel better. Yeah, extra pillows, soup, tissues, a full body massage, hugs and kisses, you name it, he'd get it!

Satisfied with her decision, she turned and started towards the door. Before she got there though, her face flushed a little as she went over her little list again. Ok, maybe she was getting ahead of herself a little there. If she gave him even just a little peck on the nose then... gosh, her heart would probably flip, flop, and implode with embarrassment!

...Unless, he didn't notice it...

Buneary stopped moving towards the door and turned towards her sleeping crush's bed again. Maybe if she gave him just a little- No, she wouldn't, that was... if she did he would... But then again...

Ahhh, forget it! Buneary hopped onto Pikachu's bed, closed her eyes, and then gave him a big affectionate smooch on the cheek. Despite the static electricity causing her lips to tingle, she found herself so blissfully lost in the moment that she didn't manage to tear herself away for almost half a minute.

Now blushing furiously, Buneary quickly, but quietly, made her way out of the room, trying very hard not to squee at the top of her lungs all the while. She felt a little bad for doing something so creepy, but... ohh, it just felt so wonderful!

Now outside the room, and having gotten over her risky yet rewarding actions, Buneary had no idea what to do. She didn't feel like getting a snack, she didn't feel like going down all those stairs again just to go outside, or cheating by bouncing out the window. Heck, she didn't even feel like sitting around while daydreaming about you-know-who. Nope, she was plum outta ideas.

Actually, that fanfiction idea... maybe she could... nah, that would be a silly idea! Honestly, a pokémon writing a story? Let alone a sappy tale filled with fantasy, adventure, amazingly detailed locations, super cute romance, fun characters, sexy pikachu...

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><p><strong>[Tuesday, 9:30 PM] (Later that night)<strong>

Buneary stopped for a second to admire how awesomely her story was coming along. Yep, so far so good!

She called it 'Moogy's tales in Lagomorphia', though she had no idea where the name 'Moogy' came from, and she didn't really know what one of these lagomorphy thingies that she'd heard about were, but hey, they both sounded pretty!

In any case, the story was going to be about the titular Moogy. A white, female buneary with a red pom-pom hanging from her head, who was on a noble quest to save the fair prince of forest Mimi, Sir Pikabun! ...Yeah, it was a work in progress.

Buneary yawned. As much as she wanted to continue, she was spent for the day. Besides, she could continue tomorrow after she finished her training session for the contest. After one more glance at the screen in satisfaction, Buneary saved her work, closed the laptop's screen and then headed off to bed.

Snuggling next to the already asleep Dawn, Buneary closed her eyes and started drifting off to sleep, all ready to start her voyage to the Dream World her mama once talked about. All alone with... her Pika...

...

_And before her thoughts could continue, she was out like a light. Ready to round her day off with some pleasant dreams that no doubt would feature her idol._

_While she slept without a care in the world, however, someone else's night was not quite so cheerful. But why...?_

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><p><strong><span>Author's note (March 04/2012)**

Creepy Buneary is the best Buneary, don't deny it!

Anyways, thanks for reading chapter Uno of my randomly thought up fic!  
>It took way longer to make than I'd have liked, and it's as cheesy as all hell, but hey, 'twas fun to make in any case!<p>

Ah well, while this is my first attempt at anything even vaguely romantic, you can say whatever the heck ya like in your review, provided ya feel like leaving one. It'll certainly help the next chapter along in any case. =P

After saying that, I bet that I'll get like 0 reviews for this fic's entire lifespan, but hey.

Oh, and before I forget, this fic is based on a couple of reviews made by the lagocouple themselves, which were found on a fic called In Times Of Danger, made by the wonderful ravengal. If you wanna find out more, go and check both the fic and its reviews out right now! I guarantee that you won't be disappointed in the least! She ain't called the Empress of Lagomorphs for nothing, ya know~

Anyways, now that the shameless advertising is finished, I'm off. See ya next chapter! (coughinayearcough)

**Author's note (January 07, 2014)**

Make that two years (almost). Ehehe.

Oh well. Anyways, as well as a new chappie I'll be uploading soon enough, I'm updating this one a little so that it looks slightly prettier too. If you see anything else that needs some fixing though, then don't be afraid to point it out! I can Fix it!™

Welp, have fun with the next chappie!

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><p><strong>Next up:<strong> Time to delve into the psychology of another lagomorph!


	2. Tough guys don't cry

Last time on Read 'em and weep...

Buneary: "Boooored..."

*A wild PikaBun fic appeared!*

Buneary: "...jizzinmypants .mp3"

-Later-

Buneary: "Heyyy Pikachu~ Make out tiem?" :D

Pikachu: "Hurp derp, no ta, kthxbai"

Buneary: D:

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 2<span>

**Tough guys don't cry...**

* * *

><p><strong>[Tuesday, 2:35 PM]<strong>

Pikachu had to admit. If there was a world record for being the best at hide and seek, then Pachirisu's certainly destroyed it by now. He'd been looking around for ages, and he still had no idea where that hyperactive squirrel had gotten off to! Heck, he could've been on the moon for all Pikachu knew! It wouldn't be a surprise either, knowing that mon...

After doing a thorough search of the room he was in, which he decided was Dawn's considering that all of her gear was scattered about the place, Pikachu sighed and just jumped up onto the bed. He'd been searching for hours now! If he didn't put his feet up, then he'd probably die of exhaustion.

Now with a place to take a load off his paws, he let his mind wander. It was a little odd that this room didn't have any bunk beds for once. In fact, the gang had separate rooms this time, as silly as it sounded! Oh well, in any case, he was just glad he had somewhere to sit.

Man, he felt like such a wuss. This was nothing compared to the days when he'd play with Togepi for hours on end without a moment's rest. Pikachu chuckled, now that was a kid with energy to spare! ...Oh wait, but her name would be Togetic now that she's evolved, wouldn't it? That topic always confused Pikachu. Oh well, heck, she could even be a Togekiss now for all he- ...hm?

In the middle of his daydreaming he brushed his hand against something cold and metallic. Curious about it, he lifted it up above him. Only for it to promptly slip from his grasp and squash him flat. Owch...

Pikachu shoved the hefty thing off of him and took a minute to catch his breath. He may be a strong mon, but that thing felt bigger than three of him combined! Not to mention heavier... Oh well, he'd been hit by far worse. He was just thankful that he was so flexible and bendy.

All that aside, without picking it up this time, Pikachu inspected the thing again. He was insanely curious, sure, but it wasn't worth the risk of becoming a Pika-pancake again.

It was... a laptop? Oh, was it Dawn's? This was her pokémon center room after all, so it made sense. Pikachu scratched his head though. Since when did she have a laptop? ...He decided not to question it.

After flipping open the lid to get a good look at it, he noticed that it was already on and running. Suddenly, he became very intrigued... No! How could he think such a thing? Seriously, what would Ash say if he knew Pikachu snuck onto people's things and looked at their private stuff?

...And then he remembered the time that he caught Ash reading Misty's diary. Yeah, he probably wasn't the best person to go to for morality advice. After thinking about it for a little while longer, he decided that maybe a little peek wouldn't hurt too much...

The screen showed a pokéball logo bouncing off the sides of the screen. Was somebody playing a game before he got here or something? It sure looked like it. As strangely hypnotic to watch as it was though, it looked pretty dull. He much preferred the game that Ash let him play that one time, even though he could never remember its name. He only remembered playing as a green plumber who liked collecting coins and jumping onto different coloured squirtles.

Well, in any case, watching this pokéball bounce around was starting to get on the mouse's nerves. Why wasn't it touching the edges of the screen!? After twenty more bounces, he started to close the lid of the laptop. This was pointless, and that squirrel wasn't going to find itself.

Pikachu began to close the lid so that no one would ever know about his snooping, but as he did, the whole screen went white and the ball vanished! He started to panic, thinking that he'd messed up someone's 'Pokéball Ping-Pong' high score or something like that! ...But then he realised that the thing from before was just a screensaver.

Pikachu slapped a palm into his face, despite being relieved. Of course, Ash had a similar one on his PC back in Pallet Town, only with a maze that had a rattata in it occasionally for some reason. Oh well, no harm done.

Getting back on track, he was soon pretty disappointed to quickly learn that there was nothing embarra- **interesting** to see. The wall of text was exactly that. Just a big boring wall of text. Well, kinda. It looked like a story of some kind. Even so, he wasn't very interested. After all, why bother reading about someone's adventures when you have around twenty a day yourself?

Of course he could read it if he wanted to, but honestly, as he said earlier, he wasn't... hmm, although his species name sure was being used a heck of a lot. Out of curiosity, despite not being the biggest story reader on the planet, he decided to persevere, if only to see what was going on.

After a few seconds of reading, he quickly found out that it was another pikachu from the wild. He shook his head in disappointment. It was a pity, he'd gotten his hopes up that maybe he and Ash were finally being recognised as a world famous team with enough fame to warrant fan stories! But nope. Not yet...

Oh well, either way, this new chu looked like a pretty cool guy, though why anyone would want to live in a boring ol' forest was beyond Pikachu. His previously wild friends would tell him all sorts of tales of their time living in the woods, but to be honest, his old life in Oak's Lab seemed way more fun. Even if most of that fun was from zapping all of the scientists each day.

Pikachu scratched the back of his head embarrassedly as he recalled those days. It would probably explain why they flinched every time he looked at them while visiting.

Oh well, in any case, he'd seen enough. Pikachu scrolled the page upwards slowly. It looked like a nice story, but yeah, he was good. Besides, he'd almost forgotten! He was still looking for Pach- ...Huh!?

There in the description, it said something about ...a female buneary? The pikachu's life being turned around? S-Something to live for!? Oh... wow.

Pikachu felt his cheeks warm up. Maybe... maybe this was a bit more interesting than he thought it was. Seriously now, the thing made it sound like they were... dating. Was this talking about Buneary? Well, his Buneary, that is?

Well no, it didn't seem like it, but it certainly didn't stop his heart from beating faster and faster with each passing second. A common occurrence whenever he thought about... her.

Well, that was half true. It was less 'common' and more like every single time her beaming face entered his mind for even a second; and he didn't even know why. Though it might have been due to how cool she was to hang out with, how nicely she treated the friends around her, how wonderfully pretty she looked, and generally how awesome a pokémon she really-

He shook his head, perhaps a little harder than he had intended. He was tired of having these thoughts all the time. All they ever did was distract him and make him feel giddy whenever she was nearby. Heck, If he didn't know any better, then he'd say that he was in...

Pikachu slowly closed the lid of the laptop until it gave a satisfyingly loud 'click', and then slid off the bed. An unreadable look spread across his face as he tried to shift his thoughts into another direction. Any direction.

He just simply couldn't walk away from the room though, no matter how hard he tried. He didn't want to admit it, but curiosity kept tugging at him, as if begging him to go back and just read a little bit more of the story. But he just couldn't. If he did, then he'd certainly start thinking about... Pikachu sighed softly. Why was he in such denial about it? It wasn't like it was wrong to feel like this. It was just... well, embarrassing.

At first he didn't mind all the constant attention and friendly hugs from her. Even if the others would joke about it sometimes. Heck, he just took the affection on the chin, as if it were simply a part of everyday life. But then, eventually, he started to appreciate those random hugs, as well as the cute bunny giving them. A lot.

It was only then that he got defensive about the teasing he got from everyone, which only made it all the more embarrassing. Even if it was all just friendly banter. This just made it all the harder to give in to his feelings, and... oh Shiny Mew, to top it all off, what if Buneary started making fun of him once she found out? Not only would that embarrass him to an early grave, it would just make him feel horrible, to say the least.

Pikachu groaned. Now he knew why Ash wasn't into dating. It just leaves you with so many conflicting feelings! Despite that though, it still felt... right, somehow. Even if it did feel embarrassing, or distract him from his training, or even scare him sometimes.

For several minutes the mouse just stood there, silently contemplating. Eventually though, Pikachu slowly climbed back up onto the bed and opened the laptop up again. He had made up his mind. He was all alone with just the laptop keeping him company, so what if he was only interested in the story because of... its topic? Nobody had to know!

Again he read the summary of this story, 'In Times of Danger', which quickly brought back any flustered feelings that might have somehow tried to slip away earlier. It was, with all seriousness, greatly implying that the pikachu in the story had... feelings for Buneary. That is, the buneary in the story. Everything about it was all a grand coincidence, of course; but that didn't stop the fact that someone out there had seriously pondered something similar to him. A buneary and a pikachu. Together.

He tried to ignore it, but his face was probably flushing brightly enough for him to be mistaken for the victim of a recent ketchup fight, so that was out of the question. Heck, even his red cheek pouches wouldn't save him this time if someone saw him.

On that thought, Pikachu couldn't help but sincerely hope that none of his friends, especially Buneary herself, came in and saw him reading it. If that happened, his face would be red enough to melt the building...

Really, the only thing that would be worse is if Brock came in and started giving him extremely cheesy advice on love, like that one time Brock found May on the 'Drew lovers daily' website. The memory caused Pikachu to shudder. Some things were just best left forgotten.

Well, while he was reluctant to admit it, he couldn't deny his raging excitement about this thing any longer, so wasting no more time, Pikachu started his journey through the first chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>[Tuesday, 3:33 PM]<strong>

Wow... that was all Pikachu could say after reading that. Just... wow.

It was... wonderful! Brilliant, even! Gosh, he didn't even think stories could be cool, but this one had certainly taught him otherwise! It had some awesome fight scenes that kept him on his toes, all the characters were fun and somewhat quirky, and most importantly, the buneary actually had a crush on Forest Chu! And even more amazing was that the main character pair even acted a little like him and the buneary he loved so much himself! Well, maybe except for the depressions, backstories and brutally eating other mons. But aside from that, it was almost uncanny!

Yes, it really was a fantastic... Wait, did he really just think that? As in, the romantic thoughts about him and-

...Actually, no. Pikachu had learned something from reading this thing. Something important. Why _should_ he deny his feelings so much? Even to himself? This story went way out of its way to make them like each other, and they were perfectly comfortable with the way things were going. From a friendship-only point at the moment, granted, but still!

Yes, maybe, just maybe, it was time to stop pretending that he didn't like her that way. Thanks to this story, he realised that liking the girl as more than a friend wasn't a bad idea at all. He was finally ready to admit it to himself. He loved Buneary, with most... no, all of his heart!

Pikachu pumped his fist in determination. Yeah, and he didn't care what anyone thought! Not anymore. He didn't care if Infernape teased him, or if the girls constantly cooed him, or if Piplup tried to practice writing up wedding invitations only for them to get sent to everyone in the group by accident! ...Again.

A sudden thought quickly flashed through the mouse's mind though, killing all sense of bravado. He did care about what Buneary would say about it though. What if she didn't think the same way and rejected him? Pikachu sighed for what felt like the seventieth time that day; why oh why could she not be like Forest Bun? It was obvious that girl had a massive crush on the main hero, so that guy would certainly have no problems confessing...

...Though that being said, looking back on all the times Pikachu and Bun both hung out, she acted exactly like the girl in this story. Covering her face whenever he said something nice to her, dancing around in a giddy way whenever they played together, crying when he upset her by accident, always sticking by his side whenever she could, snuggling up to him while they relaxed, and just generally being very friendly to him. More friendly to him than everyone else, in fact.

Pikachu felt a sudden wave of happiness. Did... did this mean that she liked him too? Heck, maybe she was even going through the same thing as him! Oh, what a wonderful thought! If that was the case, then Pikachu had no reason not to finally ask her if she wanted to date him. Yeah, that was a brilliant idea!

After going back to the first chapter and closing the laptop's lid to make sure he didn't leave behind any evidence of his... curiosity, Pikachu leapt off the bed and darted out into the hallway where he left for the stairs, almost skipping as he went along. Finally, after all these months of staying painfully silent about his feelings, he was going to pour his heart out to Buneary and let her know everything!

...He took a deep breath. This was gonna be embarrassing, for sure. But there was no backing down now; it was gonna be worth it!

He was only down a few steps when it occurred to him. He hadn't shown his appreciation for the fun story yet, had he? Pretty rude, considering that it had just inspired him to twist his life around into something amazing. Pikachu turned back and headed back towards Dawn's room yet again. No way was he gonna leave without giving the author some kind of reward, even if it ended up being something small and silly like a... thumbs up, or something.

Laptop in hand once again, he started scanning the site for some way to pay back this... 'ravengal' for her fun, ego boosting work. Well, he assumed it was a girl, anyway. Else she'd be called "ravenguy", or something.

Several seconds later he found something! While curiously clicking around on some blue text, he discovered a 'reviews' page. A lot of the things being said here sounded a lot like appreciation, so it only seemed natural that this was where he was going to show his!

Though there was just one small problem... what in heck's name was he gonna write? Pikachu had never written a shopping list before, let alone a well thought out page of his thoughts and affection for a story!

Well, that being said, there was that one time Ash found a long shopping list with nothing but "Ketchup" written on it in his bag from a... mysterious source, so maybe Pikachu was simply selling himself short. Yeah, if he buckled down for a few minutes, he was sure he could easily come up with something!

However, his mind changed soon enough once he saw that blank box for entering his review sitting there, right underneath the chapter itself. If the thing had a face, Pikachu just knew it would be staring at him tauntingly, as if daring him to make a move. Any move.

The mouse frowned. It went without saying that writing was clearly not his strongest point. Still, he had to. Because of this story, he now knew he had what it took to talk to and maybe even confess to his big crush, so he just had to do something for it. Even if it did mean writing out an essay...

After taking a deep breath, he began to type.

* * *

><p><strong>[Tuesday, 3:48 PM]<strong>

_"Hey, this book is really good! I find it cute that Pikachu and Buneary secretly like each other. Hope they get together some day soon!"_

Even Pikachu had to admit, this was beyond a doubt the greatest thing that any creature on the planet must have produced as material for a review. It was simply a masterpiece!

...Pikachu then started laughing. Not in a million years! This was pretty lame, even by his standards. After his giggles died down, he sighed. It was still all he had though... Oh, why did this have to be so hard!?

Just before he zapped the computer in frustration, he had a clever idea; Why not just scroll through the reviews that were already there and take inspiration from them? Making sure to open a new tab, he clicked on the blue text once more and in just seconds was back on the reviews page. Bingo!

His only concern now was tracking down a good review in order to... Hm!?

It seemed that finding the fic wasn't the only big surprise fate had in store for him that day, for there, right in front of him, was a review from somebody with a **very** recognisable name.

_"Dawn's Buneary"_

Pikachu's jaw dropped so far that he could've sworn that he felt the floor with his chin. How could she have... wha-!? This couldn't have been another Buneary, could it? No, the odds of another buneary having a trainer called Dawn was very low.

_"W-wait a second. Buneary, you read this too?"_ Pikachu wrote down in his bewilderment, as if expecting a response from the review in front of him. Oh... gracious. So she read the fic too, it seemed.

Well, that was a nice surprise. Pikachu certainly didn't see it coming, but he certainly didn't mind at al- **Oh legendaries, how embarrassing!**

Pikachu started to hyperventilate. This meant that she had seen all of the fluffy things that he had seen! Oh man, oh man... Though with that being said, he wasn't the pikachu in the fanfic now, was he? And she wasn't the buneary in this fic. So really, there was nothing to be embarrassed about. She'd probably think of it as a big coincidence, if nothing else.

Pikachu calmed down. Yeah, it wasn't like she had seen a fic where they were dancing in each other's arms after tiring antics, or one of them were playing cupid with both their trainers as an excuse to get closer to each other, or anything silly like that. So everything was fine!

...That was awfully specific, wasn't it? Pikachu's rosy cheeks grew rosier, though he greatly preferred being embarrassed about his lovey dovey thoughts to Buneary's opinion on them dating in a story. Besides, if he was correct and she really did like him... He scrolled the page down for a better look at the review.

_"Nice story, I really like it! :3"_

Pikachu's big smile from earlier returned; Yes, it was looking that way!

_"The pikachu in the story reminds me of my boyfriend so much!"_

Pikachu's smile suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. What.

Did he... did he read that correctly?

_"Infact, it's just like reading about our lives together, right down to him being a pikachu too."_

He started to panic. Another pikachu!? But... but when was the last time they had encountered any pikachu? Let alone one that she'd been seei- no. No no no, there had to be some kind of mistake!

Pikachu read the same paragraph again. And again. And again. But... nothing seemed different, nothing at all! Buneary was dating... another pikachu.

_"Were you inspired by our love for each other, or something?"_

Time seemed to freeze for Pikachu, and for a second, he found it hard to register anything. The room he was inside, the noises from outside, the whirring of the laptop, his own heartbeat... it all seemed non-existent, like he was trapped in a void where only he and the review from the girl he liked resided.

While it was only a few minutes, it felt like hours until he finally snapped out of it. Wanting no more of that, he went back to the review box on the other page, leaving the rest of her saddening review alone, and began typing again, his fingers now on auto-pilot.

_"And... And you already like some other pikachu? Oh..._

_Well that's... Good, I'm happy for ya! He's a really lucky guy, that's for sure._

_Yeah well, I guess I'm going to, y'know, just leave now. Great story again!_

_(Sniff) ...N-no, those aren't tears, my eyes are just itchy._

_Don't worry about me, I'm fine."_

Pikachu wiped his eyes dry. No, he wasn't going to cry over this. He was happy that his best friend had someone to care for her, she deserved it.

At least, that's what he kept telling himself over and over, but... well, his heart was saying otherwise. It felt like it was dipped in acid.

Pikachu stifled a small sob. No! This was a... good thing. This meant that he didn't have to be distracted from his training or his fights anymore! And it meant that Buneary was together with someone like she had always dreamed, and on top of all that, they could still be best friends, so it was win-win. Everyone could be happy! Yes, everyone...

After clicking the reply button, the mouse slid off of the bed and began walking towards the door. He needed some fresh air to clear his head a little. After that, he would be fine, and life could continue like it did before: with no girl troubles getting in the way of becoming the very best! Yes, he would like that.

Pikachu calmly walked outside of the room, now with a smile on his face. Albeit a hollow, forced one that- No! Pikachu shook his head; this was how he felt! He couldn't let such a silly matter get the better of him. No way.

He didn't stop mentally, and sometimes vocally, reminding himself of this as he headed down the stairs to the fields outside; he was afraid of what might happen if he did...

* * *

><p><strong>[Tuesday, 4:00 PM] <strong>

The warm sun upon Pikachu's face and the velvety grass under his feet were welcome distractions from his inner turmoil. It was... nice. Not to mention relaxing. It was almost as if today was just another great day for playing and adventuring with his friends, and not the day where his heart was torn in two like someone's used tissue...

It was all fair enough though, he supposed; he hardly deserved her. He knew nothing about dating, outside of whatever stupid things Brock said to women every day, and this Pikaguy must've been pretty charming to get so close to such a lovely- "**Ah**!"

Suddenly, Pikachu found himself lying face down in the grass. His confusion didn't last long though as he suddenly noticed two furry, brown arms wrapped around his body. Uh oh.

"Heya Pika~"

Pikachu stiffened up in terror as he heard her voice. "Oh! Er, h-hey Bun!" Oh why now? Of all times, why now!?

And it wouldn't stop, either. She just kept holding onto him. If this were any other time he would be smiling like an idiot, but right now, considering the current turn of events, he just felt like crawling into a hole to die.

"Mmm, how are you today? I haven't seen ya for a while." said Buneary, which was somewhat true. He hadn't seen her since yesterday's breakfast.

Pikachu's expression darkened. And now he knew why...

Feeling her fuzzy face rubbing against his back reminded him that she was probably looking for an answer. "Oh, I'm... fine thanks. Yeah." It was probably the biggest lie of his life.

The pressure on his back disappeared as he felt her hop off his back, giving him an opportunity to get up and turn around to meet her face to face. Looking at her, she seemed to be her old cheery self, as always. Though she seemed happier than usual today.

He could only **imagine** why... Pikachu had to suppress the urge to frown.

"I've been looking all over for ya! Where've you been? Heh, not hiding from me, I hope?" she said with a playful tone in her voice, though Pikachu didn't really notice; he was too busy trying to look anywhere but into her eyes.

"Oh, sorry about that. Nah, I've just been around doing... stuff." Pikachu replied absent mindedly. He couldn't think straight enough to give a proper answer, and who could blame him? All he wanted to do right now was just go and... and train with Ash, or zap Team Rocket, or something. Anything to help him keep his mind off of the girl he earlier swore to admit his crush to. But now she was right here in front of him, so what could he do?

For a minute, he considered congratulating her on her success, but, well, he couldn't. It would be really awkward, without a doubt. Plus, he was honestly afraid his emotions would flare up and make him... cry. And if that spoiled their friendship, well, he wouldn't know what he'd-

"Umm, Pika, is something wrong? You're looking a little-"

Pikachu gasped and then started to panic. Did he just zone out!? "N-no! I'm good!"

Now paying full attention, he noticed that Buneary recoiled a bit as he said that just a little too loudly. "...Er, ehehe, nah I ain't upset at all, is what I meant to say." He could tell by her raised eyebrow and frown that she wasn't buying it.

Oh man, he had to come up with something else or things were gonna turn awkward anyway! He racked his brains for a few seconds before he came up with something genius. "Actually yeah, come to think of it, I don't really feel all that well I'm afraid. Thought the fresh air would help a little, but yeah, guess not. Heh."

Well, he was being half-honest, at least...

Buneary suddenly looked concerned. Bingo! "Awww, really? Well, would ya like me to do anything for ya?"

He desperately wanted to say 'Please date me instead of him' but... instead, he shook his head. "Nah, I'm good."

She persisted. "But... y'know, I don't mind at all! I could get you something to drink, or a hot water bottle, or -"

"Naaah, don't worry about me." Pikachu interrupted. "I just need some rest and then I'll be back to kicking butt yet again! Pika-pinkie swear!"

Buneary giggled. "TeeHee! Well... alrighty then! In that case, I hope ya get better soon, Pika~!"

Pikachu chuckled lightly. It looked like he was going to get away with this. "Heh, thanks a lot! I'm sure I'll-" Before he could finish, Buneary came closer and rubbed her nose against his in a friendly manner.

As their noses touched, a wave of emotions all hit Pikachu at once. Affection for the rabbit, jealousy at his pikachu rival, sadness from his never to be returned feelings... and the list just continued to grow with every second he was nuzzled up to the girl he... the girl he still loved.

As hard as he tried not to give into these emotions, he could feel his eyes start to water and his vision start to blur. At around the same time, Buneary started to open her eyes, and judging by her concerned looks, he knew she could already see his eyes. Thinking fast, he turned away and pretended to cough loudly. "Ugh, yeah, as you can see it's getting worse, so I'm gonna just, y'know, go. Bye Bun!"

Without another word, he turned tail and ran for the pokémon center. He heard Buneary say something, but right now, the only thing he cared about was making sure nobody saw his tears. He tried to be happy for her, he really did, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't move on. Not that easily.

Thankfully, he didn't meet anyone on his way back to Ash's room, where he finally let himself cry in peace.

It was just so unfair! If only it wasn't for those past few days. If only he had kept an eye on her. If only he had acted sooner, like when he started to have feelings for her. And if only the stupid story hadn't raised his hopes to stupid levels!

He knew he'd have to get over it eventually, but Mewdamnit, he had no idea how! Apathy? Feeling happy for her? All impossible.

On that last thought, he paused. How could it be impossible for him to be happy for her? She sounded like she was truly in love, and after all the things she said this year about how she'd always wanted someone to feel close to...

But that was it. He'd always hoped that he could be the one to take that spot. Today, he even thought that the spot was as good as his! But it was now stolen from him by some random pokémon swooping in and stealing all of his progress in less than a week! Pikachu threw his pillow off the bed, and reached for another one to do the same... but he stopped.

Overwhelmed by his sadness, fatigue hit the mouse like a sack of bricks. And so, deciding that enough damage was done for the day, Pikachu climbed into bed. As tired as he was though, he knew he wouldn't rest well tonight...

...

_Many minutes later, the mouse finally fell asleep, despite his grief. However, this would most certainly not be the end of his troubles. Not by a long shot..._

* * *

><p><strong><span>Author's note (January 07, 2014)<span>**

Fina-freaking-lly! It's finished!

Jeez, what's it been now? More than a year for an update? Two years even? Man...

Oh well, I guess it could be much worse. At least it ain't like my Youtube channel, right? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed today's surprisingly depressing chappie~

To be honest, this chapter's gone through like two different rewrites. The first one happened when I decided to try and turn the 'Fun Dial' up a notch, seeing as Pikachu was being as boring and cliché as all hell, and the second happened after being told by ravengal that my reimagined Pikachu was a little too much like me; odd, goofy and full of confusing dialogue and stuff like that. Plus, the older version was cuter and more her kind of thing and blahblahblah, you get the picture.

Hope I got the right balance this time 'round though. Took a lot of work and some guidance from rg, but I think it's at least decent now! Hopefully. If not, please let me know, won't ya? I'm relying on ya!

Oh, and also, if you've been super observant recently, ya might have noticed that I've changed the title for the previous chappie from "Profound Curiosity" to the more cheery sounding "Love is in the air!" (Also, I updated a few other things for that chapter. Check it out!)

Why? Well, mostly because the old one was full of profound pretentiousness, let's be honest. That, and the only reason I went with the bloody naming convention in the first place was so that I could put "Profound sadness" from Street Fighter 4 in there somewhere.

...I'm a guy of memes, what can I say?

Anyways yeah, now I'm gonna be going with chapter names from the oh so happy soundtrack of Yoshi's story. Probably the only game that's sweet and cheery enough to give lagomorphshipping itself diabetes. Heck, the soundtrack itself is called 'Love, Peace and Happiness'. Nothing's more cutesy than that, my friends.

On that note, just to keep you all guessing, I'll be posting the source of each title a chapter after they appear. However, if you can tell me where exactly each title comes from before I tell everyone else, you'll be rewarded with a cookie and warm fuzzy feelings! So feel free to share.

So yeah, on that note, the previous chapter's title, 'Love is in the air', is based on the ever nostalgic Tower stage in Yoshi's Story, which is in world 3-2, specifically.

Oh well, and with that longass author's note, I shall see you all next time. Tata for now!

**tl;dr**: I suck at keeping deadlines, sorry, lel.

* * *

><p><strong>Next up:<strong> No one's a happy bunny.


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